AP: Writing Short Answer Responses

In AP US History more than AP World, Short Answer Questions will determine your understanding of history in the moment. With nary a textbook or guide, you will be given a question that will test you on your knowledge of historical events and themes and how you can connect ideas together to form a coherent response. Basically, you need to use your own memory to answer these questions correctly, but it's not as hard as it sounds! What students balk at is the amount of short answer questions on the APUSH test; there are normally 3, broken up into 2 or 3 parts per question. Students are given about 20 minutes to answer all of them, which causes many to begin hyperventilating, and most either putting in minuscule effort or avoiding them entirely. But instead of panicking and giving up on the question, you just need to stay calm, focus, and follow these steps to ensure that you answered them to the best of your ability.

3. Plan Out Your Question

Many students go into the AP tests without a plan of action to follow and help keep them on course for a 5. These students will then come across the short-answer questions and panic, usually resulting with less desired results. But if you look and study the question for 2 minutes, you'll be able to put an answer together in your mind that actually makes sense. Here's an example of a SAQ you would see on the APUSH test:

How did 2 of the following events affect American identity in the 20th century, and how do they compare?

• The Great Depression
•  World War II
• Vietnam

Before anything, analyze the question. You'll discover that it only wants you to compare 2 of the 3 events listed below it, so any you were more vague about can be crossed off. It also requires you to know how the events affected "American identity" and how they compared to each other. In my opinion, I would choose the Depression and 'Nam, as they both caused Americans to become dissuaded by the government and made many question their self-worth in their respective societies. By taking a few minutes to go over the question, you can already begin to have an outline ready, and a basic idea of what you need to write, with enough time left to write a response.

2. Short but Elaborate

Getting ready to write the question can be easy, but actually doing so can be quite challenging. A lot of students believe that writing long responses without going very deep into their subjects suffices for a good statement. They are wrong. The people grading your test can see through responses where the person obviously knew little about their subject, and making it very long will only make it worse. When writing, being quick to the point yet still elaborate enough to answer the question is the way to go. An SAQ should only be about 5 sentences, and in those sentences, you can be as blunt or eloquent as you want. These are based on your knowledge, so I cannot tell you what to write, only what you should follow.

1. Answer ALL Parts

This is something that should be well understood, but isn't. When the question has multiple parts, you don't only answer one part unless specifically instructed to do so. Most SAQs are 3 parts, and you'll lose a lot of points if you only answer one. Pay attention and be prepared to write at least a paragraph per question.

The most important part of SAQs is to not panic. It's just a little writing over things you should already know and understand. You'll be able to get through it if you follow these three steps.

-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep